I think I started my year right by quitting social media – for at least a week now… and I plan to do more!  I’ve actually been wanting to quit for a long time now because it has become quite toxic for me. Instead of doing other more important things, I find myself wasting precious time perfecting photos I want to upload and share, coming up with posts that can garner more likes, mindlessly browsing at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Social sharing is okay up to a certain extent especially if it offers valuable information that I need and especially if it makes me feel good, but if it doesn’t make my life better anymore, if it brings out negative feelings in me, if it’s not contributing anymore to my well-being and the well-being of my family, I guess that’s the time to call it quits.  I’m not even “chismosa” in real life. I’m a quiet person. I mind my own business. And I more often than not don’t care about what my neighbors do. But with social media being open to the world, it’s like something is pulling me to eavesdrop or take a peek at other people’s lives and most of the time, the things I see just make me feel depressed about my own. But since it’s part of my job (I manage a lot of social media accounts for my clients), I really can’t quit it all together and that’s okay. What I mean is to quit my own personal social media which I’ve done for the past week. And here’s what happened:

1. I’ve been sleeping 7-8 hours a day now, sometimes even more! My health will thank me for this!
2. I finished all my work on time! No more backlogs and extending working hours over the weekend. It’s Saturday now at 5:00 AM and I’m excited at the thought of just doing non-work related stuff. Hurray!
3. When I’m with Tuz, I really am with Tuz! Unlike before that I may be holding or carrying him but my face and my thumbs are on my phone posting content on Facebook or answering comments and private messages. How many times have we been in an “almost accident scenario” here at home just because I am not 100% focused on my baby???!!! Never again!!!
4. I was able to do adult stuff outside the house. By adult I mean stuff that makes me feel so grown up like going to the barangay hall and municipal trial courts to inquire about filing legal cases. Someone has done me wrong and this person has to pay for it. It sounds stressful writing it here but when I’m out there doing what needs to get done, I feel much better.
5. I’ve finished reading a book. And I plan to finish some more. I hope to finish this year the countless books I’ve bought all these years that are still gathering dust in my bookshelf.
6. It’s only been a week since we welcomed the new year but Mahal and I have already made some concrete plans to make our next set of dreams come true.
7. I’ve been doing tarot card reading, prayers and meditation more often.
8. Generally and overall, I just feel better.

I don’t know yet if I will ever quit social media for good because like I said, social sharing is okay up to a certain extent. But since I haven’t been looking at nor posted anything on my own social media for a week now, and I haven’t also looked at anybody else’s except my clients’ accounts, I just feel liberated! It’s like I’m really living my life and not being controlled by the need to post or share, by likes, praises and comments I see in a little box. After all, social media is not really real life. Nobody looks perfect in real life. No one is really happy all the time. What we see in social media is just a wonderfully curated sneak peek at the lives of people in our virtual social circle plus news (sometimes even fake news) that more often than not bring us more negative feelings than good (aminin!) Well, that’s according to some research I did about people who have quit social media for good and in a way I resonated with them. We’ll see… So far, so good.

As for this blog, I don’t consider it part of social media per se. It’s my own little private space… my diary of sorts. So as long as I have things I want to document and write about so I can look back at it when I’m much older, this blog will always be updated at least once a week. So stay tuned.